\u201cIs the air con on? It\u2019s pretty hot in here\u201d, said the auctioneer Y\u00fc-Ge Wang\u00a0during the high-profile sale of works from the collection of Anita and Poju Zabludowicz at Christie\u2019s London, yesterday 25 June.<\/p>\n
The auction itself simmered rather than reaching boiling point, with most works comfortably selling within estimate. The sale totalled \u00a315.4m (with fees) with 89% sold by lot and 97% by value. 56 pieces from the 8,000-strong collection \u201cembracing discovery, dialogue and risk\u201d went under the hammer, many of them fresh to market, alongside an ongoing online sale featuring an additional 44 works (until 30 June).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Overall, three lots were withdrawn, including Heidi Bucher’s\u00a0Parquet, Room nr. 25, Second floor, Oberm\u00fchle (Ahnenhaus)\u00a0(1980\u201382, estimate \u00a3100,000-\u00a3150,000) and Martin Ede’s\u00a0Des Yeux Verts\u2014Sans Visage\u00a0(2003, est \u00a315,000-\u00a320,000). And seven failed to find buyers, including Alex Israel’s Self-portrait\u00a0(2013, est \u00a3100,000-\u00a3150,000), and Wade Guyton’s Untitled (2015, est\u00a0\u00a3150,000-\u00a3200,000).<\/p>\n
In 2023, the Zabludowicz couple closed their non-profit project space<\/a> located in a former north London Methodist church after 16 years. Their decision to close followed a well-publicised boycott movement against Anita and Poju Zabludowicz over their links to Israel. <\/p>\n \u201cHaving closed the project space\u2026 they are offering the works at Christie\u2019s in a spirit of renewal. Now directed by their daughter Tiffany, the Zabludowicz Collection remains oriented towards the future,\u201d says the auction house.<\/p>\n The top lot, Philip Guston\u2019s Mirror Head\u00a0(1977), slightly underperformed, fetching \u00a33.9m (with buyer\u2019s fees) against an estimate of \u00a33.5m to \u00a35.5m. \u201cAlmost three metres in width, Mirror Head<\/a>\u00a0is a large and powerful manifestation of the shift [towards figuration]. It depicts the artist\u2019s wife, Musa McKim\u2014the back of her head, to be precise. She appears to be facing her hazy reflection in a mirror,\u201d says the Christie\u2019s website. At the very bottom end, Aaron Curry\u2019s spray painted piece Pixelator (Infinite Mask), 2008, sold for just \u00a3381 against a \u00a310,000 low estimate. <\/p>\n Works that nudged their low estimate included John Baldessari\u2019s painting Life Balance with Toilet\/Far and Near (1990), which sold for \u00a3114,300 (with fees), against a \u00a3120,000 low estimate, and Jonathan Gardner\u2019s The Cloud\u00a0(2016), which made \u00a338,100 (with fees) against an estimate of \u00a340,000 to \u00a360,000). But 12 works exceeded their high estimate including Thomas Houseago whose Astronaut No. 1\u00a0sculpture (2008) realised \u00a392,250 (with fees; est \u00a350,000-\u00a370,000).<\/p>\n The auction was a market test in particular for Richard Prince, currently undergoing a renaissance with major shows in Vienna and Venice, and the ubiquitous street artist Kaws. The former had two works consigned including Untitled (Cowboy),\u00a01994, which went for \u00a31.5m (est \u00a3800,000-\u00a31.2m). The couple consigned three works by Kaws, with Companion (Original Fake,\u00a02011) garnering the highest price at \u00a3228,600 (est \u00a3350,000-\u00a3550,000).<\/p>\n The market for Damien Hirst is in flux but the Brit artist\u2019s butterflies still have their wings. I Love You\u00a0(1994-95) sold for \u00a3762,000 (estimate \u00a3600,000-\u00a3800,000). Bidding for the work, which had a third-party guarantee, leapt quickly to \u00a3570,000 and then stalled. I Love You\u00a0is one of a suite of 12 butterfly paintings for which Hirst was awarded the prestigious Prix Eliette von Karajan in Austria in 1995.<\/p>\n Six other lots were third-party guaranteed. Records were set for Anj Smith, Jakub Julian Ziolkowski and Rose Wylie, whose 2015 work Sailing Boat\u00a0sold for \u00a3292,100 (est \u00a3150,000-\u00a3350,000).\u00a0Bidders from countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Japan participated online via Christie\u2019s live.<\/p>\n The Zabludowicz couple started collecting in 1994, with more than 600 artists represented in their holdings. In 2010, the Zabludowicz Collection initiated an international residency programme for artists on the island of Sarvisalo in Loviisa, Finland. <\/p>\n In 2021 however, 25 artists \u201cdeauthored\u201d their works of art in the Zabludowiczs\u2019 collection because of the London couple\u2019s links with Israel. The group of artists and cultural workers, known as Boycott\/Divest Zabludowicz or BDZ, cited the Zabludowicz Collection\u2019s links to the Israeli state as the motive for \u201cdisaffiliating\u201d themselves (none of these artists\u2019 works were in the auction). Artnet News\u00a0reports<\/a> that the pair are selling the works because of their “disillusionment” with the art world.<\/p>\n The couple did not comment on this but Tiffany Zabludowicz told The Art Newspaper: \u201cWe are very happy with the results of this auction, which has been an exciting moment of transition for the collection. It has been a great experience to collaborate with Christie\u2019s on this sale of approximately 1% of the collection\u2026 the collection has always and will continue to focus on art of our time and on supporting the wider art ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n Poju Zabludowicz\u2019s late father was a Polish Holocaust survivor who built up the Israeli and Finnish defence company Soltam Systems, which he sold in 1991; he is now chair and chief executive of the family business, a private equity firm called Tamares Group.<\/p>\n